"1970s in Hong Kong Hong Kong in the 1970s underwent many changes that shaped its future, led for most of the decade by its longest-serving and reform-minded Governor, Murray MacLehose. Economically, it reinvented itself from a manufacturing base into a financial centre. Political talks about the Second Convention of Peking resurfaced in the early 70s. The New Territories land lease agreement would end within 27 years in 1997. MacLehose began visiting Beijing to talk about the future of Hong Kong with PRC leaders. The British and the PRC governments began a long negotiation process that would ultimately lead to the"
"perceived infringements in the HKSAR by mainland China, the British Foreign Office announced that Chinese officials now treat the Joint Declaration as ""void"". The background of the Sino–British Joint Declaration was the pending expiration of the lease of the New Territories on 1 July 1997. The lease was negotiated between the UK and the Guangxu Emperor of China, and was for a period of 99 years starting from 1 July 1898 under the Second Convention of Peking. At the time of the lease signing, Hong Kong Island had already been ceded to the UK in perpetuity under the Treaty of"
"of this lease on the previous day, 30 June 1997. This event marked the end of British rule in Hong Kong, and is regarded by some as the end of the British Empire. By the 1820s and 1830s, the British had conquered parts of India and had intentions of growing cotton in these lands to offset the amount of cotton they were buying from America. When this endeavor failed, the British realized they could grow poppies at an incredible rate. These poppies could then be turned into opium, which the Chinese highly desired. So the British plan was grow poppies"
"United Kingdom for 99 years rent-free, expiring on 30 June 1997, and became part of the crown colony of Hong Kong. The Kowloon Walled City was excepted and remained under the control of Qing China. The territories which were leased to the United Kingdom were originally governed by Xin'an County, Guangdong province. Claude MacDonald, the British representative during the convention, picked a 99-year lease because he thought it was ""as good as forever"". Some of the land under the convention remains rural and it is home to virtually all of Hong Kong's remaining farmland. However, as the city districts have"
"as several land developers in Hong Kong, became aware of the question of the 1997 expiry of the 99-year land lease by China to Britain of the New Territories, contained within the 1898 Sino-British ""Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory"", feeling increasingly uncertain about the future validity of land leases. The colony of Hong Kong was basically made up of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon which were ceded to Britain respectively in 1842 and 1860, and the New Territories, which unlike the first two regions was only leased to the United Kingdom for a 99-year term beginning from"
"Government rent in Hong Kong The Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong (""the Joint Declaration"") was signed between the Chinese and British Governments on 19 December 1984. It came into force on 27 May 1985. The Joint Declaration sets out in its Annex III provisions in regard to, inter alia (among other things), the grant of new land leases and the extension of non-renewable land leases. In accordance with Annex III to the Joint Declaration, between 27 May 1985 and 30 June 1997, new leases of land were granted by the Hong Kong Government for a term"
"the British Hong Kong Government, which extend beyond 30 June 1997 and all rights in relation to such leases shall continue to be recognised and protected under the law of the HKSAR for a period expiring not longer than 30 June 2047. Furthermore, a Land Commission shall be established with equal number of officials from the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the PRC which was dissolved on 30 June 1997. This commission was established in 1985 and met in Hong Kong for 35 formal meetings and agreed on 26 legal documents, within the granting of the"
"Handover of Hong Kong The transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong, commonly known as the handover of Hong Kong (or simply ""the Handover"", also ""the Return"" in mainland China) was the transition of control over the former British colony of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China on 1 July 1997. The returned territory comprised Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula, which were respectively ceded to Britain in 1842 and 1860, as well as the New Territories, which were leased for 99 years from 1898. The transfer was arranged to coincide with the expiration"
"enshrined in the Joint Declaration. Article 120<br> All leases of land granted, decided upon or renewed before the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region which extend beyond 30 June 1997, and all rights in relation to such leases, shall continue to be recognised and protected under the law of the Region. Article 121<br> As regards all leases of land granted or renewed where the original leases contain no right of renewal, during the period from 27 May 1985 to 30 June 1997, which extend beyond 30 June 1997 and expire not later than 30 June 2047, the lessee"
"to hold Hong Kong and proposed British administration with Chinese sovereignty, though this was rejected by China. A deal was reached in 1984—under the terms of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, Hong Kong would become a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, maintaining its way of life for at least 50 years. The handover ceremony in 1997 marked for many, including Charles, Prince of Wales, who was in attendance, ""the end of Empire"". Britain retains sovereignty over 14 territories outside the British Isles, which were renamed the British Overseas Territories in 2002. Three are uninhabited except for transient"
"Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory The Convention between the United Kingdom and China, Respecting an Extension of Hong Kong Territory, commonly known as the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory or the Second Convention of Peking, was a lease signed between Qing China and the United Kingdom on 9 June 1898. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China now keeps the original copy of the Convention in the National Palace Museum in Taiwan. In the wake of China's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War (18941895), the British took advantage of the other"
"Westernisation in Hong Kong After the First Opium War in 1842, China ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain under the Nanking Treaty. Subsequently in 1898, China leased the lands surrounding Hong Kong Island which includes the New Territories, the Kowloon peninsula and outlying islands to Britain rent free for 99 years under the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory following China's defeat in the First Sino Japanese War. These unequal treaties has granted Britain the power to colonise the whole of Hong Kong. Even though Hong Kong was eventually handed back to China at the handover in 1997,"
"the British had grown increasingly worried about the security of their free port at Hong Kong. It was an isolated island, surrounded by areas still under Chinese control. The British decided the answer would be to lease a buffer zone around Hong Kong that would make the island less vulnerable to invasion. In 1860, at the end of the Second Opium War, the UK gained a perpetual lease over the Kowloon Peninsula, which is the mainland Chinese area just across the strait from Hong Kong Island. This agreement was part of the Convention of Beijing that ended that conflict. In"
"to the BN(O) status can be found in ""section 4 of the Hong Kong (British Nationality) Order 1986"", as amended by ""section 2 of the Hong Kong (British Nationality) (Amendment) Order 1993"". By the late 1970s, it had become a public concern in British Hong Kong that the 99-year land lease of the New Territories, a major region north of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island, to the United Kingdom would expire in around 20 years. Governor MacLehose first raised this question during his office in Hong Kong. The public concern immediately resulted in a series of negotiations between the Chinese"
"1898, the British and Chinese governments signed the Second Convention of Peking, which included a 99-year lease agreement for the islands surrounding Hong Kong, called the ""New Territories."" The lease awarded control of more than 200 surrounding small islands to the British. In return, China got a promise that the islands would be returned to it after 99 years. On December 19, 1984, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration, in which Britain agreed to return not only the New Territories but also Kowloon and Hong Kong itself when the lease term"
"British Hong Kong British Hong Kong denotes the period during which Hong Kong was governed as a colony and British Dependent Territory of the United Kingdom. Excluding the Japanese occupation during the Second World War, Hong Kong was under British rule from 1841 to 1997. The colonial period began with the occupation of Hong Kong Island in 1841 during the First Opium War. The island was ceded by Qing China in the aftermath of the war in 1842 and established as a Crown colony in 1843. The colony expanded to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 after the Second Opium War"
"taking the position that they would not accept so-called ""unequal treaties"" that were imposed on them by colonial powers. The governments of the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China (PRC) concluded the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984, under which the sovereignty of the leased territories, together with Hong Kong Island and Kowloon (south of Boundary Street) ceded under the Treaty of Nanking (1842) and Convention of Peking (1860), was scheduled to be transferred to the PRC on 1 July 1997. The territory was then transferred as scheduled. Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory The Convention between"
"of British administration and replaced it with the Provisional Legislative Council. The decision of transfer of the sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997 was finalised by the Chinese and British governments on 18 December 1984 in the Sino-British Joint Declaration. The Declaration stated that the Chinese government would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong (including Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories), effective on 1 July 1997, from the British government. Within these declarations, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall be under the direct jurisdiction of the Central People’s Government and shall enjoy a high degree"
"colonial Empires had ceased to exist as significant global entities. Sunset for the British Empire came when Britain's lease on the great trading port of Hong Kong was brought to end, and political control was transferred to the People's Republic of China in 1997. Soon after, in 1999 Transfer of sovereignty over Macau was concluded between Portugal and China, bringing to a close six centuries of Portuguese colonialism. Britain remained culturally linked to its former empire through the voluntary association of the Commonwealth of Nations, and 14 British Overseas Territories remained (formerly known as Crown colonies), consisting mainly of scattered"
"protectorate, gained its independence. In September 1982 the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, travelled to Beijing to negotiate with the Chinese government, on the future of Britain's last major and most populous overseas territory, Hong Kong. Under the terms of the 1842 Treaty of Nanking and 1860 Convention of Peking, Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula had been respectively ceded to Britain ""in perpetuity"", but the vast majority of the colony was constituted by the New Territories, which had been acquired under a 99-year lease in 1898, due to expire in 1997. Thatcher, seeing parallels with the Falkland Islands, initially wished"
"certain circumstances. The Act made a variety of other changes to the law: In some cases, transitional arrangements were made that preserved certain aspects of the old legislation. Most of these expired on 31 December 1987, five years after the Act came into force. Critics argued that one of the main political motivations behind the new law was to deny most Hong Kong-born ethnic Chinese the right of residency in the United Kingdom in the time preceding the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984 and later the handover of Hong Kong (then the largest British colony), to the People's Republic of"
"to British consular protection in the HKSAR and other parts of the PRC. After signing of the declaration, the Sino–British Joint Liaison Group was set up according to the Annex II of the declaration. The transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong (referred to as the ""return"" or ""handover"" by the Chinese and British press respectively) occurred as scheduled on 1 July 1997. Since the return just a few things changed, such as the flag of Hong Kong and the Prince of Wales Building being renamed into the People's Liberation Army Building. Post boxes were repainted green, as per the practice"
"beginning of the emergence of a Hong Kong identity, changed the attitude of the local Chinese. They overwhelmingly rallied around the colonial British regime. British Hong Kong British Hong Kong denotes the period during which Hong Kong was governed as a colony and British Dependent Territory of the United Kingdom. Excluding the Japanese occupation during the Second World War, Hong Kong was under British rule from 1841 to 1997. The colonial period began with the occupation of Hong Kong Island in 1841 during the First Opium War. The island was ceded by Qing China in the aftermath of the war"
"usually held on the evening of 1 July in Victoria Harbour. Hong Kong's territory was acquired by United Kingdom from China through three separate treaties: the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, the Treaty of Beijing in 1860, and The Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory in 1898, which gave the UK the control of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon (area south of Boundary Street), and the New Territories (area north of Boundary Street and south of the Shenzhen River, and outlying islands), respectively. Although Hong Kong Island and Kowloon had been ceded to the United Kingdom in perpetuity, the"
"villagers exercised their right of abode in the United Kingdom and left for Europe. In 1967, a series of large-scale riots erupted in Hong Kong, causing social instability. These events led some of the richer Hong Kong residents to move abroad. Emigration took place to countries in Southeast Asia, South Africa or South American countries. This wave did not come to a rest until the mid-1970s. On the 19th of December 1984, the People's Republic of China and the United Kingdom signed the ""Sino-British Joint Declaration"", validated the 1997 transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong to China. The declaration prompted"
"within the PRC. On 19 December 1984, the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong (The Joint Declaration) was signed between the PRC and UK governments. Under this agreement, Hong Kong would cease to be a British Dependent Territory on 1 July 1997 and would thenceforth be a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the PRC. Citizens opposed to the handover led to the first wave of emigration. Hong Kong's population topped five million just at the beginning of the 1980s, and rose at an annual average rate of 1.3% over the next ten years. The additional 700,000 residents"
"1898. Since the 99-year lease would expire roughly twenty-five years after in 1997, they began to notice that land leases in the New Territories approved by the colonial government might not subsist beyond 1997. To test the attitude of the Chinese government to the validity of the leases, the Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, accompanied by the Senior Unofficial Member of the Executive Council, Sir Yuet-keung Kan, and the Political Advisor to the Governor, (later Sir) David Wilson, accepted an invitation from the Chinese government to visit Peking in 1979. The purpose of the visit appeared highly sensitive to the British"
"on 31 December 1995. Clayton commanded the Type 22 frigate during the 1997 Hong Kong handover ceremony. Hong Kong had been a British colony since 1841, but Britain's lease was due to finish and control was to be handed to the People's Republic of China. ""Chatham""'s role was to act as guardship for the royal yacht HMY ""Britannia"", Clayton said of the experience; ""There is no sense of withdrawal, this is very much one professional armed forces handing over the protection and sovereignty of Hong Kong to another, the People's Liberation Army. So I look on it as a classic"
"the Chinese, the Second Convention of Peking was signed on 9 June. Since the foreign powers had agreed by the late 19th century that it was no longer permissible to acquire outright sovereignty over any parcel of Chinese territory, and in keeping with the other territorial cessions China made to Russia, Germany and France that same year, the extension of Hong Kong took the form of a 99-year lease. The lease consisted of the rest of Kowloon south of the Shenzhen River and 230 islands, which became known as the New Territories. The British formally took possession on 16 April"
"and British governments in the early 1980s on the future prospect of Hong Kong. After rounds of intense negotiations, both countries signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration on 9 December 1984; the Declaration stated that the British would give up sovereignty and administration in Hong Kong on 1 July 1997, when China resumes her sovereignty over the city. The signing of this Declaration was initially well received by the international community, despite widespread fear in Hong Kong that Chinese sovereignty would mean authoritarian, one-party rule with a communist economic system. As a response to this fear, the late Chairman Deng Xiaoping"
"July 2016, nearly 40% of Hongkongers aged 15 to 24 supported the territory becoming an independent entity, whereas 17.4% of the overall respondents supported independence, despite only 3.6% stating that they think it is ""possible"". Hong Kong Island was first ceded as a crown colony to the United Kingdom from the Qing Empire in 1841 during the First Opium War. The other parts of Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories were ceded permanently and leased for 99 years to Britain in 1860 Convention of Peking and 1898 Second Convention of Peking respectively. Although the Chinese government, governed by the"
"Development Goals. Hong Kong was under British rule before 1 July 1997. Prior to the implementation of the ""Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Act 1996"" enacted by the British Parliament, Hong Kong represented its interests abroad through the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices (HKETOs) and via a special office in the British Embassies or High Commissions, but the latter ceased after the sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred to the PRC and became a special administrative region (SAR) of the PRC in 1997. At present, the ""Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices"" under the Government of the Hong"
"the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong. In light of the United Kingdom Memorandum to the Joint Declaration, 31 December 1997 was the last day for any eligible person to register for the British National (Overseas). After a brief period of optimism after Deng Xiaoping's promise of retaining Hong Kong's British Common Law system, safeguarding the independence of judicial proceedings from government intervention and preserving the capitalist market economy, initial response to the registration for BN(O) was unenthusiastic. On 4 June 1989, the massacre of unarmed university students at the Tiananmen Square protest in Beijing, however, eliminated the credibility of"